


Saturdays Child.

by Auroraborealis22



Category: Impractical Jokers
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-07 10:00:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12230595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Auroraborealis22/pseuds/Auroraborealis22
Summary: Do you ever forget your first crush? The one person that gives you that warm butterflies in your stomach fuzzy feeling when you secretly stare at them. The one person that makes the tickle in your chest intensify making you smile for no reason when you're near them.Do you ever forget your first love? The one person that you will always compare everyone else too. The one person that you will never truly get over, even when you've convinced yourself you've moved on. Well....do you?





	Saturdays Child.

**Author's Note:**

> The starting point for this story is Sal's most embarrassing moment from his childhood.  
> If you know what that is then you know where this first chapter is heading, I've just built a story around it.

Silence breezed through the upstairs bedrooms of the house. The window at the end of the long landing corridor was pushed up affording a light gust of wind to flutter the curtains sending a shot of cold air to tickle across Carrie's shoulders and bare arms. She gave an involuntary shiver goosebumps prickling her skin as she got up from her desk and moved to close her bedroom door. The amount of homework in High school was way more than Middle school, and Carrie was finding it seemed to take up more and more of her time. She was a perfectionist. Nothing short of an A was what Carried strived for in every subject. Her friends always seemed content with C's and B's, their work rushed and messy but not Carrie. She set great store in neatness, cleanliness, and order, in life as well as her work. She'd been working on her U.S. history homework for two solid hours now. Carrie frowned at the gurgling sound that came from her protesting stomach and decided to head to the kitchen for some lunch.  
Saturday was cleaning day. Her mom worked full-time, and literally, everything had to be done on the weekend. Carrie's dad had died when she was eight, and the house, this house that she'd grown up in was predominantly female. Her Auntie Cath had come to stay with her mom after her dad had died and had never left and then Grandma Flo had come to live with them two years ago after she'd had a bad fall at her home. The five-woman from three different generations lived, ate and slept under the same roof in relative harmony most days. The fifth person and Carrie's sometime antagonist, sometimes confidant was her sister Georgie.  
Tall, popular with both boys and girls, strawberry blonde hair always backcombed like a halo around her face, huge bright blue eyes sparkling at anyone that mattered, Georgina Francis Sinclair was older than Carrie by three and a half years. Georgie was in her senior year at high school and would turn eighteen in the summer. Carrie had just turned fifteen two months before and was nothing like her sister.  
Slowing her pace at the top of the stair Carrie could hear her mom's voice echoing up from the hall where the phone sat.  
"I'm so sorry Mrs Vulcano," She heard her mom's voice apologise. "Georgina won't be able to babysit for you tonight she has practice......yes that's right........Oh it's all very exciting.......yes it's only a short solo, but she's been practising so hard." Carrie cringed. Oh, her sister had been practising alright, trouble was it made not the slightest bit of difference. She still couldn't hold a note. Why in the name of God no one had told her, the truth confused Carrie. Georgie was good at a lot of things, excellent in most all but singing wasn't one of those things. Carrie crouched down on her haunches and settled herself to sit on the top step waiting for her mom to finish on the phone.  
Trish Sinclair turned around flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder phone pressed to her ear as she moved the duster absently over the last balustrade at the bottom of the stair that was decorated with what looked like an upsidedown pineapple. She flicked her gaze up settling her blue eyes on Carrie, and Carrie stared straight back already a heavy sinking feeling settling in the pit of stomach as she saw the faint spark of an idea flash across her mom's widening eyes.  
"Carenna can come over instead Mrs Vulcano......" Carrie's dark eyes shot wide at her mom's words. She was mouthing the word 'no' frankly shaking her head. "She's fifteen Mrs Vulcano......yes; she's done babysitting before, a couple of times for Mrs Alba down the block." Trish turned her gaze from Carrie as her daughter shot up and rushed down the stairs. "Seven- thirty? Yes, Mrs Vulcano seven - thirty is fine. Carenna will be more than happy to babysit for you." Trish ignored the pleading glare that bored into her from Carrie. Holding her hand up Trish waved her index finger to and fro in Carrie's face just skimming passed the tip of her nose. "Well, thank you Mrs Vulcano I'll tell her that, bye, bye then, bye." and with that, she rested the receiver back onto its cradle.  
"Mom!" Carrie exclaimed as soon as the call ended. "I can't babysit, I've got geology homework to do when I've finished my U.S. history."  
"Nothing is stopping you taking it babysitting. C'mon Carenna, I know for a fact Mrs Vulcano hasn't had a decent night out since the divorce, you know she's living back with her parents again. "Carrie just stuck her bottom lip out in a sulky pout. The living arrangements of the Ex Mrs Vulcano didn't interest Carrie one bit.  
"But mom......" Trish quickly shut down any more protests from Carrie by shushing her with her finger. "Seven thirty sharp Carenna, don't be late." Carrie cast a glare at her mom as she passed around her at the bottom of the stairs. She tried to stomp down the hall, but her socked feet failed to make this happen as the soles of her feet sunk into the carpet. Heading towards the kitchen, Carrie pushed the flat of her hand against the kitchen door. Stepping through it, Carrie let the door slam closed behind her. Grandma Flo snapped her head up from where she sat at the kitchen table.  
"Whoa, girl what's gotten you all het up?"  
"I've been volunteered to do the babysitting for Mrs Vulcano tonight in Georgie's place, she said....."  
"She.....She. .....Carenna Deborah Vanessa Sinclair Where are your manners?"  
"Sorry, Gran." Carrie apologised."It's just that mom thought it was okay to volunteer me without even asking me. I've got a ton of homework due in on Monday, and now I've got to lug it out with me while I babysit tonight." Carrie sat heavily on the wooden chair across the table from her Gran and pouting her lips rested her chin on the ball of her left hand while she drummed her fingers against her cheek. A half-peeled potato in one hand, the peeler in the other Flo Munro eyed Carrie's elbow where it rested on the table.  
"Carrie honey, you spend far too much time holed up in your bedroom doing homework. Would it hurt so much to do it while babysitting? I'm sure you could use the extra cash Carrie, aren't you supposed to be saving up for one of those new-fangled walkman things?"  
"Suppose." Carrie reluctantly agreed. She knew her gran was right but then most of the advice Flo Munro gave her grand-daughter was always spot-on and Carrie knew this.  
Florance Munro, Flo to close family, Florrie to her friends went back to peeling the potato and Carrie's eyes stared at her Grans' fingers as they deftly peeled the skin from the potato before dropping it with a satisfying plop into the saucepan of water in the middle of the table. Carrie watched her grans' wrinkled fingers reach for another potato and start to peel that before she remembered why she'd come downstairs in the first place. Carrie stood up from the table and headed over to the fridge. Opening the fridge door Carrie's eyes searched the shelves contemplating the contents. Deciding to make a sandwich Carrie gathered everything she needed onto the counter. She glanced at the clock on the wall as with bread knife in hand she cut a slice from the fresh loaf she held firmly in the other. It was coming up to one o'clock. After lunch, Carrie thought she'd probably need another half an hour on the U.S. history homework. Then she'd make a start on the geology. 

The second half of Carrie's sandwich lay on the plate forgotten its corners curling as it began to dry out. The droning sound of the vacuum could be heard on the landing outside her bedroom door as Carrie stared at the neatly coloured and labelled graph spread out on her desk. Rotating her shoulders, Carrie lent back in the chair. Finished at last. She deserved an A for this geology homework she'd been working on for the pasted hour and a half if Carrie didn't get an A then she'd be disappointed.  
Rather than lug her homework to the Valcano's while she babysat that evening Carrie had decided to plough on with it at home and get it done. It was easier to carry a single book than a stack of folders and her pencil case around to babysit so Carrie had decided to take the book they were studying in English Literature instead. She was already more than halfway through Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, her goal being to read up to chapter 28 by the end of the week.  
Carrie stretched her arms over her head to pull out the tension in her neck and decided to finish for the day. She flicked her eyes to the small alarm clock by her bed to find it was a quarter to three. The vacuum was still droning away her mom doing the rounds of the bedrooms. Carrie knew her bedroom would be next. Standing Carrie quickly tidied her homework away leaving her desk neat and tidy and then grabbed her hairbrush up from the top of her drawers. Opening her wardrobe door she used the small mottled mirror on the inside while she brushed her slightly wavy brown hair into a high ponytail. She fluffed her wispy fringe with her fingertips replaced the hairbrush in the same position she'd picked it up from and shut the wardrobe door.  
"Carenna, honey," Her mom's voice called from the other side of the bedroom door."Can I come in and give your room the once over?"  
"Yeah," Carrie called back. "I've finished my homework mom," Carrie said glancing up as her mom's face appeared around the slowly opening bedroom door. "I'm gonna go out for a bit mom." Carrie's feet were already in her white plimsolls as she lifted her left foot onto the cover of her bed where she sat so she could tie her laces.  
"Where are you going?" Trish asked manoeuvring the vacuum into Carrie's room. "Dinners at five thirty sharp Carrie you know I've got to..."  
"Take Grandma Flo to the community hall, I know mom you take her every Saturday evening without fail," Carrie pushed herself up from her bed and hitched her jeans up."I'll be back in time for dinner, promise. I'm only going over to Miss Stanley's to meet Matt after practice." Carrie reached for her dark blue bomber jacket and slipped her arms into the sleeves.  
"Don't be late," Trish reiterated the plug of the vacuum in her hand as she looked around for the closest socket. "You tend to get distracted once you get talking to Matteo, and if you miss dinner, you'll be going babysitting on an empty stomach." Trish bent down then and slotted the plug into the socket by Carrie's bed just as her daughter called bye and left the bedroom.  
Carrie had rushed halfway down the stairs before she heard the drone of the vacuum start up again. She went to say bye to her gran but found her asleep in her favourite chair in the living room. Smiling to herself, Carrie headed down the hall, through the kitchen and out onto the back porch. Rushing down the back steps, Carrie scooped up her orange framed bicycle from where it rested against the side of the house and pushed it around into the street.

The cool wind brushed against Carrie's cheeks making her eyes sparkle as she approached the corner at the bottom of the hill. She lent into the turn as the bike's wheels skidded a little underneath her, but she didn't lose control. Peddling for another five minutes, she bumped the front wheel of her bike up the kurb and pedalled down the middle of the sidewalk passing at least six houses before she slowed. Squeezing her fingers lightly on the brakes Carrie finally brought her bike to a stop in front of the white picket fence that matched the front of the white colonial style house it surrounded.  
The gate latch snapped shut behind Carrie as she pushed her bike up the front path. Satisfied that the bike wasn't going to fall from the where she'd lent it against the side of the houses porch steps Carrie settled herself down to sit on these steps that led up to the front door of the Whitehouse.  
From where she sat Carrie could hear the piano as someone's nibble quick fingers danced along the keys. The melody was a mix of high notes and low sharp flats, soft harmonies and heavy chords. Carrie hugged her arms around her legs, rested her left cheek against her knees and closed her eyes. She imagined herself hand in hand with a faceless someone walking with them in the dark of the night with only the moon and stars to guide them. The melody seemed to grasp hold of her heart pulling it with an imaginary string. She felt like she was floating on air as she drifted away into her own imagined little daydream.  
Carrie audibly gasped when she felt a hand gently laid on her shoulder. Such was her surprise she nearly lost her seating and would have crashed into her propped up bike if she hadn't saved herself in time. Matteo's chuckling laugh made her snap her head around quickly to scowl at her best friend since kindergarten.  
"Don't do that Matt!" Carrie glared at him screwing her eyes up and pursing her lips. "You nearly gave me a heart attack! "  
"Daydreaming again Caz," Matteo Bianchi said shaking his head and smirking to himself. Sitting down next to Carrie he carefully slid his music sheets into the folder he held before guiding that into the backpack between his feet.  
"Same time next week Mr Bianchi," Carrie swiped her eyes around to glance over her shoulder at the woman stood on the top step of the porch.  
Andi Stanley, Matt's piano teacher racked her fingers through her short messy bleached blonde hair that showed more than an inch and a half of dark root. Dipping her fingers into the pocket of the baggy faded, ripped knee jeans she wore Andi slid the cigarette packet she held between the denim and her hip. A cigarette that Andi had already pulled from the pack was dangling between her lips. Andi shielded her hand around the flared match she'd just lit and drew on the cigarette. She inhaled and blew a plume of smoke straight over Carrie, and Matt's heads then slowly lifted her right hand and lightly touched the cigarette to her lips again. Carrie watched her inhale seeing the smoke curl into her mouth. Andi's hand dropped to her side with the cigarette tucked between her two fingers. She flicked away the excess ash in the same movement.  
Carrie looked closer at Andi's face watching as a wisp of smoke curled from her lips, rolled around her nose, up past her eyes to dissipate over her forehead.  
"Ask her then," Matt said nudging Carrie in the ribs to gain her attention. Breaking her gaze from the smoking woman Carrie snapped her head quickly around to Matt. Wide-eyed she drew her lips into a tight line and shot him a warning glare.  
"Ask me what?" Andi Stanley asked as she flicked cigarette ash onto the porch steps before returned the cigarette to her lips to hold then draw on it, closing her eyes as she did so.  
"Caz heard you playing that Talking Heads LP that was released a few years back, she was wondering if you would possibly tape it for her? Caz is saving up for a walkman Miss Stanley." Carrie cringed into herself from where she sat on the steps. Matt was by far her best friend ever, but right at that moment, she could have cheerfully strangled him.  
"Arh...yes....Fear of Music," Andi nodded regarding Carrie's bent head as she avoided her view. She'd been playing it on her record player a couple of weekends back just after one of Matt's scheduled piano lessons. She'd noticed Carrie sitting on the porch steps bobbing her head along to 'Heaven' singing along when she thought no one could hear her. "I saw Talking Heads live last year in the city with a guy I was dating. We came really close to hanging out with David Byrne and the rest of the band backstage the guy," Andi paused for a moment a look of concentration on her face. " Joe..no it was Josh..no hang on Jake, yeah his name was Jake,"Andi recalled. "Anyway he knew someone on security at the gig but in the end, I missed out, I had to leave to get back home. Saw the back of David's head though." Andi smiled to herself as Carrie turned to look at her a bright spark of wonder in her eyes. "Do you like, Remain in light from 1980 Carrie? I can tape that for you too if you like?" Andi shifted her gaze from Carrie's intent eyes to look out into the street. "If I tape Talking heads for you Carrie, you've gotta do something for me." Andi took one last long deep drag of her cigarette then dropped it onto the porch step and stood on it.  
Carrie's stomach twisted, she knew what Andi, Miss Stanley was going to ask her, she'd complemented Carrie on her singing voice more than once and had been trying to pursued Carrie to take lessons, but to no avail. Carrie had always laughed it off, not believing that Andi was really serious.  
"Come and have a couple of singing lessons in exchange for me taping the LP for you Carrie, fairs fair don't you think?" Flicking her dark eyes at Matt to glowering at him, Carrie realised all too late that Matt had walked her right into this without her knowing what he was doing until the last minute. A self-satisfied smirk was playing at the corners of his thin lips a clear indication that he knew as well as Carrie that she couldn't back out.  
"Okay." Carrie sighed her shoulders sagging. Pushing herself up from the step she cast her eyes over the grey rolling clouds that stretched across the sky as far as her eyes could see. A dog yapped in the front garden of the house across the street, the high pitched noise filled Carrie's ears as she thought. "On one condition only, nobody gets to know about this okay? No one at all needs to know that includes mom, gran, Auntie Cath and defiantly not Georgie," Matt stood up, and Carrie surveyed him as he hitched his rucksack onto his skinny frame. "Don't tell anyone at school either Matt or I swear to God I will kill you."  
"Sure," Matt grinned skipping down the steps to hop off the last one onto the path that led down to the short white picket fence. "Whatever." He shrugged stuffing his hands into his pockets and glancing over his shoulder to wait for Carrie to join him.  
"Shall we say this time next week Carrie? Sammie Taylor's mom from down the block canceled his clarinet lessons this morning, so I have a slot free, and I promise you, Carrie, nobody will find you out."  
Carrie just smiled weakly nodding her assent as she joined Matt on the path. Carrie had no intention of making the singing lessons a permeant thing. In a couple of weeks she'd fling out the excuse that they interfered with her school work, or her mom couldn't afford them, either way, she just couldn't keep them up. Carrie even had the thought that she could maybe turn herself into the worst pupil ever, and then Miss Stanley would be begging her to stop the lessons.  
Turning halfway down the path, both Carrie and Matt raised a hand in the air signaling their goodbyes to Miss Stanley. Andi crossed her arms and still standing on the porch let her eyes follow the two figures to the gate. Matt with his slightly stooped gait, his arms swinging and Carrie pushing her bright orange bike her loosened ponytail swaying a little against the back of her head as she moved. Andi already had a vague idea that Carrie would somehow manoeuvre things to quit the singing lessons before they'd even get a chance to get properly started. Setting her jaw firmly Andi resolved not to let that happen.

The boy with the waterlogged sneakers squelched his way down the sidewalk. Every step sent the dirty pond water oozing between his toes. The very thought of the pond water with no doubt hundreds of barely visible parasites swimming about in it made his insides turn. He forced down the mounting feeling of sickness building in his stomach at his every step to glance up from the sidewalk at his older sister and her two best friends walking in front of him. His green eyes swam with tears as he focused on the backs of the giggling girl's heads. Biting down on his lip, Sal willed himself not to burst out crying. He succeeded, but only just. It wasn't just his sneakers that were wet, he had fallen back into the pond with his arms splayed out and a look of horror on his face knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop himself. His sister and her friends had jumped back shrieking as the waves of water his fall had created washed towards their feet. Flaying about, he'd frantically spat and coughed up the pond water and tried to clear his ears. In doing so, he'd been met by the hysterical laughter of the three girls.  
His tee shirt was sticking cold and damp to his back, his shorts dripped water down his legs and his wet underpants were beginning to chaff the tops of his legs making them feel like they were being rubbed red raw. Right at that very moment, he hated his sister and her friends. There was a growing feeling in his insides that he'd most probably catch some fatal disease from the water and die. At that moment he hated every pond in the known universe but most of all he already hated the look that would be on his mom's face when she saw the state of him. He didn't have long to wait to see that look.  
His forlorn eyes watched his sister and her friends steps quicken as they skipped further ahead of him before making a left turn that took them up the path to their home. He trained his gaze on the sidewalk searching out any cracks in the paving to resolutely avoid them. Turning towards the path his right foot squished wetly on the crack he knew was there. He always managed to avoid it every other day, but today he'd failed as he heard his mom's voice boom out to him through the still early spring afternoon.  
"Salvatore Edward Anthony Vulcano, what the hell!" Head lowered five-year-old Sal's eyes watched the drops of pond water drip from the edge of his shorts onto the concrete sidewalk, the dark stain of their mark slowly being absorbed to be replaced by nothing.  
"He fell in Josie's pond mom." Sal's head shot up at his sister's remark. She knew as well as he did that her hand had come into the equation of him falling into the pond. Sal knew by the gloating gleam in her eye it would have been futile to argue and try to counter back. "He stinks mom, that's why we made him walk behind us. He stinks of dirty ditch pond water," She shivered over dramatically poked her tongue out at her brother behind her mom's back and then stuck her hand out to catch the door before it shut on her. She made to duck through it after her friends laughing along with them she called over her shoulder. "He smells gross mom, I think you should hose him down, in the yard...naked."Her words tinkled with mirth before the door shut on her back.  
"Get your ass up these steps right now Salvatore." Sal wrinkled his nose to squint up into the stern features of his mom trying to gauge exactly how mad she was by her stance and the tone of her voice.  
Sal squished his way miserably down the path dragging out each step that led up to the porch and his mother's wrath. "Fuck Sal, honey I really don't need this tonight." Exasperated she patted one hand against the hair rollers clipped tightly to her head. "I'm nowhere near ready yet and the babysitters due in half an hour. Honey, your just gonna have to strip off right here on the porch."  
"No! Please, mom, everyone will see." The desperation in his eyes conveyed what Sal hoped was the terror he felt at being seen naked and exposed on the family porch.  
"Strip down to your underwear sal, while I go and start you a bath sweetheart, I'll bring you out a towel as soon as I've got the bath running." Sal's face fell his mouth slightly agape watching his mom match away from him into the house.  
He blinked a couple of times at the shut door not quite believing that his mom would just leave him to get undressed on the porch. Sighing his shoulders slumped as he slowly pushed his feet out of his soaking sneakers. Sal peeled his socks off next and flung them on top of his sneakers. Scanning his eyes out into the street, Sal was thankful there seemed to be no one around. Sal just preyed nobody could see him from the houses across the street as he let his wet shorts fall to the porch, his tee shirt followed laying saturated on top of his shorts in a stagnant smelling heap.  
Sal began to shiver, his teeth chattering a little while he wrapped his arms around his body. It felt to Sal like he waited for an age for his mom to come back with the promised towel but in actual fact, it was mere minutes.  
With the towel draped across his shoulders the warmth of it hugging his body, Sal let his mom, her hands firmly pressing into his shoulders lead him into the house. She firmly directed him to the stairs that would take him to the bathroom.  
"You do know Josie saw a rat drinking outta her pond the other day don't you Sal?" His sister's gleefully sounding voice came to him through the open living door followed by the shrieking laughter of her friends.  
"Don't listen to her Sal, sweetheart. I doubt very much if Josie really did see a rat, she's just saying that because she knows what saying it will do to your head." This news was too late for Sal's five-year-old brain to handle because his thoughts had already gone into overdrive thinking about what kind of disease he could catch if a rat had been near the water. He felt his stomach reel and grumble as he padded sadly up each step of the stairs. He was going to die a horrible excruciatingly slow death, and nobody was going to care.

 

Carrie stood stock still in the hallway of the house. Her fingers clutching the cake tin she held firmly against her chest, Carrie's copy of Catch 22 was resting on top. Her eyes followed the pattern of the linoleum flooring to where Mrs Vulcano was stood wriggling her feet into a pair of mid-heel black patent leather pointed toe shoes. She watched as the woman wobbled a little, testing out the feeling of heels before turning to survey herself in the hall mirror. Mrs Vulcano patted her hair, now free from the curlers it framed her face in soft waves.  
"Is that one of your mother's delicious cakes you have there Carenna? " Carrie's eyes had wandered away from the woman her attention on the open living room door and the loud noise of the television filtering through to where she stood.  
"Oh, erh, yes Mrs Vulcano," Carrie swung her gaze back to the woman watching as she shrugged her arms into her jacket. The overly broad shoulder pads sat squarely on her shoulders giving them an angular look as her fingers flicked imaginary lint from the front of it before she snatched up her purse.  
"Kitchen's down the hall Carenna, just pop the cake tin on the counter and tell your mom I'll drop it back to her at the store on Tuesday. Now.." She turned toward Carrie satisfied with her reflection in the mirror. "Dana's asleep already, Kelly Ann is watching TV," Stopping for a moment she rolled her eyes at the canned laughter coming from the living room and moved toward the open door. " Kelly Ann, turn the TV down please it's too loud you'll wake Dana." Carrie heard the volume decrease and then nearly jumped out of her skin as a woman's loud over-excited voice spoke through the slight gap around the front the door.  
"C'mon, hurry up it's time to go the cabs here." Carrie craned her neck around but the owner of the voice had already retreated their head. She could just see the vague outline of the woman through the frosted glass of the front door.  
"Kelly Ann has another half an hour of TV time then bed, Salvatore is in the bath he fell in someone's pond, please don't ask." Mrs Vulcano arched her eyebrows and shook her head a little." He knows to go straight to bed after his bath so you won't have any problems with him. There are snacks and soda in the kitchen sweetheart so help yourself." The cabs horn blasted loudly in the street, and at the same time, the woman on the porch rapped her knuckles on the glass panel of the door. "I won't be back any later than mid-night okay Carenna."  
The front door clicked shut and then she was gone. Carrie let out a long breath. The idea that she was now on her own in the house with three young children made her insides twist a little. Hopefully, when all the children were in bed, she could settle into her book again. Barring any dramas, it seemed babysitting the Vulcano children was going to be a piece of cake.

The light in the small bathroom was bright and sterile casting no warmth over the busy mosaic of blue and white tiles. The bathroom was so small that there was only enough room for one person at a time to be in there unless you wanted to stand in the bath. It was scrupulously clean though. The old tarnished mirror over the sink that matched the bath was slowly clearing. The smiley face Sal had drawn in the steamed up glass hardly visible now.There was a stack of fragrant, fluffy towels carefully folded on an old painted wicker chair in the corner. Sal opened his eyes and slid himself up the end of the smooth bath. He'd been lying on his back in the water half imagining that the tub had suddenly grown bigger and he was floating in the middle of a vast swimming pool. The water was starting to cool, feeling slightly tepid as it sloshed against his bare skin.  
Hauling himself up with his fingers gripped tightly around the edge of the bath he carefully swung his legs over the tub. He reached for the towel that he'd placed on the floor and enveloped his body in the soft fluffiness of it before he began to dry himself off. His stomach grumbled, and Sal wondered if he could get away with sneaking a snack from the kitchen without the babysitter seeing. His mom's words that he was to go straight to bed after his bath without any supper still rung in his ears. But the hunger in his belly was overriding her words; she would never know. She'd only find out if the babysitter told her and he had no intention of letting the babysitter see him. Mind made up he continued to dry himself his hunger growing steadily minute by minute.

The cake tin safely deposited in the kitchen Carrie had joined Kelly Ann in the living room her book clutched tightly in her hand. The girl lay sprawled out on her stomach, chin resting in the palms of her hands staring intently at the flickering TV screen her bare feet swinging in the air. She didn't acknowledge Carrie as she sat on the sofa behind the laying girl being too intent on the programme she was watching. Carrie tried to read but the fast-paced chatter and accompanying laughter from the TV made it difficult to concentrate, so she gave up. With one eye on the clock and no interest in the show on the TV Carrie methodically counted down the minutes as the clock slowly ticked towards the girl's bedtime. 

Carrie's left foot faltered as she lifted it up to tread on the next step. There had been a couple of minutes of pleading from Kelly Ann to stay up just five minutes more, but Carrie had stood firm. It seemed that Georgie would let Kelly stay up an extra half an hour when she babysat but Carrie had politely told Kelly Ann that she wasn't Georgie and she was to go to bed when her mother had said.  
And so leaving the lounge, Kelly Ann had sprinted up the stairs ahead of Carrie and had rounded the top before Carrie had even got halfway up the stairs. The sound of two voices having a heated argument along the landing spurred Carrie forward. Worried they'd wake and upset the sleeping younger child Carrie frowned as she hastily bounded to the top of the stairs.  
"Get offa me!" Sal was trying to prize his sister's fingers off the small portion of the towel that she was gripping hold of with all her might. Panic was setting in as he felt the towel loosening around his waist as she tugged at it.  
"Ouch, Sal you idiot, you scratched me."  
"Well, let go then," Sal's fingers frantically tried to claw back the towel that was slipping down his hips as his eyes bored into his sisters with anger. "Or I'll tell mom you pushed me into the pond earlier."  
"She won't believe you, Sal. Your such a crybaby." She stuck her bottom lip out at Sal then mocking him.  
"I hate you!"  
"I hate you more!"  
"Hey, what's going on here guys? Pipe down or you'll wake Dana up." As if in slow motion Sal felt his fingers loose their grip on the towel as his head whipped around to where the owner of the voice, the babysitter, stood at the top of the stair. His sister took that precise moment of Sal loss in concentration to give one last yank of the towel.  
With a cry of utter satisfaction, she waved the towel, now free from Sal's body, in the air as she gave a little triumphant dance. Casting the towel down onto the floor, she covered her mouth with one hand as if she was trying to force the shrieking laughter that was bubbling on her lips back down her throat. Her shoulders shook with the effort of trying to suppress her laughter as on tiptoes she half skipped half tumbled through her bedroom door.  
Mortified Sal was frozen to the spot. He couldn't believe his sisters would do this to him and right in front of the babysitter too. Sal stood soaking in her cruel laughter as his head began to spin. He'd never live this down as long as he lived. His sister would be reminding him of this moment, caught naked in front of the babysitter for the rest of his life.  
Blushing would have been no problem, but what Sal did was go as red as a beetroot the heat radiating off him like a hot pan. He wanted a scooby-doo style trap door to open up and swallow him whole. But there was no rescue from this embarrassment. It was absolute. Torture. Utter humiliation. Five-year-old Sal knew this memory would be seared into his brain forever, ready to pop up and torment him again and again.  
His eyes flew shut as both of Sal's hands instinctively went to cover himself between his legs. He shuffled his hunched shoulder around away from where he knew the babysitter was standing, in a vain attempt to shield his young naked body from her. Sal knew this action meant his ass cheeks were exposed to her, but he didn't know what else to do.  
The warmth on his cheeks had travelled down his neck to the top of his chest, the sweltering heat wave on his skin triggering a smarting feeling in his eyes. Unchecked tears of humiliation coursed down his hot cheeks as Sal started hyperventilating, gasping for air. His heart was thumping madly way in his chest far too erratic for Sal's liking. He wasn't expecting the towel his sister had swiped away from him to be unceremoniously dumped over his head right at that moment.  
Traumatised Sal gathered the towel around his body as his knees gave way and he sank slowly to the floor wrapping the towel around himself as he went. He was aware of the dark shadow of the babysitter from behind his towel shelter.  
"Sweetheart, don't cry. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. I didn't see anything, honest." Carrie crouched down and eyed the Aztec pattern on the pale pink towel now wrapped around the naked boy.  
"Yes, there is," Sal replied his small voice muffled through the towel. " There's everything to be embarrassed about."  
"It's okay; I'm gonna go fetch Kelly Ann to come say she's sorry." Sal heard the babysitters soft footfall as she left his side. Sal waited.  
"Hey Sal," Soon his sister's meek sounding voice cut into his embarrassed thoughts. "I'm really sorry for pulling the towel off you earlier; I feel really bad about doing that to you." He didn't believe her. Sal could hear her trying to veil over the faint giggle in her words. She was just saying it for the babysitters benefit, she didn't mean it. He didn't reply. Didn't move. Didn't acknowledge her at all. "Can I go to bed now I've apologised?" Sal heard his sister ask the annoyance at being made to apologise to him hanging heavy in her words. Sal sensed the babysitter and his sister move away from him. More minutes ticked by for Sal but he didn't move from his position with the towel still wrapped tightly around his body.  
"Do you like cake?" Carrie smiled to herself at the obvious involuntary jump the boy wrapped in the towel made at her question. He was crunched up into a tight ball covered by the towel just by the bathroom door and didn't seem to show any signs of moving from this position. "Listen, Salvatore, that's your name right?" There was a mumbled inaudible reply followed by a nod from the boy shaped lump. "I'm gonna leave your pyjamas right here for you okay?" Carrie placed the neatly folded plain blue cotton trousers and shirt top on the floor next to the boy's feet. "They're just by your right foot, now.." Carrie stood up and took a step back."You've got two choices Salvatore. One, you get into your PJ's, hop straight into bed, and we don't speak of this again or two," Carrie slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and rocked a little on her heels. "You get into your PJ's, come down for some cake, then hop into bed, and we still don't speak of this again, it's up to you okay?" 

 

The slight movement by the doorway made Carrie flick her eyes up from the page of her book. Carefully she placed her bookmark between the pages, folded the book shut and placed it down on the checked cloth that covered the small kitchen table.  
Her intuition had been proved right, and the boy had come down for a piece of cake. She'd already anticipated that this would be the boys choice and had cut two pieces of her mom's cake. Carrie was thankful it was a square shaped cake as you couldn't really notice that a half inch slice had been cut from one side.  
"Have you ever had Tres Leche Cake before Salvatore? " Shaking his head, Sal stood awkwardly in the kitchen doorway rubbing the toes of his right foot over his left foot as his fingers pulled at the cuffs of his pyjama shirt. "My mom makes the best Tres Leche Cake ever Salvatore. Try it, it's good." The sound of Sal's stomach gurgling loudly in the quite kitchen at that very moment had Carrie sucking her bottom lip to stop herself breaking out into a broad smile. She didn't want the boy to think she was laughing at him.  
"It's just Sal," Stepping towards the kitchen table Sal choose to ignore the sound his stomach had just made, although he could feel the bloom of a blush colouring his cheeks. "My name..," he said sliding himself onto the wooden chair opposite Carrie. "It's just Sal, not Salvatore, that's my dad, Salvatore, not me." Picking up the cake fork Sal broke a piece of the cake off and spooned it into his mouth.  
"Well Sal, my names Careena, it was my great grandmother's name, but my friends call me Carrie."  
The first fork full of the moist, delicious cake dissolved it's milkiness on Sal's tongue as Carrie watched him from the other side of the table. Licking his lips, Sal shovelled in another piece eager to taste the sweet creaminess again.  
Carrie raised her own fork and began to eat her slice of cake, not quite matching Sal's gusto but enjoying it all the same. Sal devoured his slice of cake in next to no time. Placing his cake fork in the dead centre of his plate, Sal tried not to stare at Carrie as she finished her slice of cake. Sal watched her lips scoop the last piece of cake from the fork. The small pointed tip of her pink tongue poked out between her lips to lick cream from her mouth. Sal knew it was rude to stare, but right at that moment, he couldn't pull his eyes away from her as a strange feeling he couldn't explain fluttered somewhere in his insides in the place between his stomach and heart.  
"Told you my mom makes the best Tres Leches Cake on Staten Island didn't I Sal?" Carrie grinned smiling brightly at Sal from the across the table placing her fork down. "Would you like a glass of milk Sal before bed?" Sal could feel his heart thumped so hard that he swore it was audible. Nodding silently to Carrie's question he boldly met her eyes and smiled. Carrie smiled back at him as she reached for his empty plate. It was only a small smile, but it was enough to make Sal go a little weak at the knees.  
Carrie rinsed the dishes they'd just used and set them to rest on the drainer while Sal finished the glass of the milk she'd poured for him. Glupping the last mouthful of milk, Sal quickly wiped the milk moustache from his top lip with the back of his hand.  
"Time you were in bed don't you think?" Carrie said pulling back her cuff to take a glance at her watch. It was a quarter after nine. "I know you should'a been in bed over an hour ago, but I won't tell if you don't okay?"  
"Yeah, okay." Swinging himself around Sal slid off the chair. "What about Kelly Ann though? She's bound to split on me."  
"She won't Sal; we had a little chat earlier you know. She knows that she'll end up getting in trouble too if she mentions it to your mom. She's choice about it. Come on now off to bed with you." Sal preyed she was right as he walked from the kitchen into the hall. The last thing he needed was his mom and grandparents knowing that he'd been caught naked by the babysitter. He imagined it would be a great source of amusement between his adult relatives and their friends. The fewer people knew about this; the better was Sal's theory.  
Carrie followed Sal back up the stairs, catch 22 clutched in one hand as she climbed her socked feet making no sound on the dark burgundy stair runner.  
A sliver of moonlight from the not quite closed enough curtains spilt into the bedroom Sal shared with his sister. Kelly Ann was asleep her breathing small and steady. There wasn't enough moonlight to illuminate much in the room there was just sufficient enough light to navigate by as Sal quickly slid himself into the bottom bed of the bunk he shared with his sister.  
Sal watched Carrie gracefully sink down so she was sat crossed legged in the middle of the rug next to his bed. The doorway of the bedroom was open behind Carrie spilling light over her shoulder and onto the pages of her book as she flicked the pagers to get to her mark. Placing the leather bookmark into the back of her book, Carrie raised her dark eyes up and smiled at Sal.  
"Go to sleep; I'll stay here and read until you do okay." Carrie smiled raising her eyebrows a little before dipping her gaze down back to her book. The light through the door framed Carrie's silhouette. Sal blinked as he thought that Carrie looked like she'd been carefully cut around and someone had stuck her where she sat so the light from the doorway cast rippling shadows over her soft brown hair highlighting a hint of honey hues. Fighting the urge to close his eyes completely, Sal continued to train his gaze on the concentration on Carrie's face as she read the book.  
Sal settled himself into the familiar, comforting warmth of his bed as he pulled the covers tightly around his body. He pushed the right side of his face into the soft cotton of the pillow smelling the crisp freshness of the clean sheets. A small smile touched the corners of his mouth as his breathing became slower and deeper. Sal tried to keep his eyes locked on Carrie looking away was unthinkable. Sal couldn't understand why his heart felt like it was doing somersaults in his chest as tiredness crept closer in, his eyes becoming steadily heavier and heavier. His last coherent thought was of Carrie's smile and the way the dimples indented into her cheeks as his eyelids closed and he gave in to sleep.


End file.
